The Untouched
by NeverLookBack756
Summary: Natsume and Mikan decide to join forces when they're the last living after the world experiences an undead apocalypse. But can the two of them fight against the zombies, find supplies, and keep an eye on each other? Not to mention the things a world of zombies comes with, the crazy people they run into, or the budding love they're growing for each other.
1. Out of the Crawl Space

When the alarms sounded off, it began.

From that point on, the world was over, and the dead were walking.

Everything happened in a certain order. The alarms, the screams, the pounding on our front door, and finally the silence. When I asked my grandfather why it was so quiet, he shivered. Without sparing me a single reassuring glance, he said, "Mikan, it isn't quiet. That's just what death sounds like." And so I listened. And sure enough, it wasn't silent. There were lots of distant things, sure, but it was anything but silent.

That was three years ago and I've never forgotten that loud silence. Sometimes that silence would even return, and even though it didn't happen often, it was chilling.

I survived the hardest part. Barely, but surely.

"Mikan, remember that little hideout you used to play in as a little girl?" Jii-chan said grabbing his coat. I nodded. "Grab a flashlight, a box of crackers and water bottle, maybe even a book, and hide yourself in that hole. Don't come out even if someone calls for you. Only come out if it's me, you understand? I'll come back for you but for now you're just going to have to-"

"You're leaving me here? Grandpa, what's even going on?" He kissed my forehead.

"Sweetheart, that's what I'm going to figure out. Do what I told you and don't look out the window."

And with that he was gone. It wasn't too hard to figure out either, that the kiss grandpa gave me would be his last.

*/*

"Damn it Mikan, _watch out!" _I turned around, swinging a baseball bat behind me. I didn't need to look to know that the walker behind me had fallen to the ground, dead for good. Wiping some of the splattered blood off my hand, I stomped on the zombie's face for extra measure.

"Natsume, I can take care of myself." He stood in front of me, obviously annoyed. His long black hair was a bit of a mess. As much as he tried scrubbing the dirt out it never went away. It must've been something about living in the zombie apocalypse that made it so impossible to clean. He always stood tall whenever I saw him, but he might've been different before all this for all I knew. Maybe he was a sloucher and walking dead people kicked some sense into him.

"Like hell you can. Can you take care of yourself after you've turned, huh? Who's gonna smash your head in, because I know it's not gonna be me. They call us Untouched for a reason." I sighed. He was just worried. Gripping my baseball bat in my right hand, I placed the left on Natsume's back. We started walking back home "I know, I'm sorry. I'll be more careful next time."

*/*

I met Natsume one week after hell broke loose. I had been living in the small crawl space Grandpa told me. In the six days I stayed trapped in there, I had eaten through two boxes of crackers, a bag of dried mangoes, and three cans of soup. My flashlight was dead, so I started leaving a crack in the cover up oh the hole so I wouldn't be in complete darkness. When I finished the book, I grabbed a pen and started drawing happy things on the wall to help myself feel better. I still didn't know what was wrong. I had assumed it was a bad storm, or maybe some plague had swept through the village. That still didn't account for the fact I was told to stay in this hole. Right when I thought I might be able to go out, I heard a man burst through the front door. His footsteps were heavy. They echoed through the house and made him known.

"Hello?" he called out with a strong voice. There were men with him, and I could him them searching through the house. I shut the covering to my hole and lowered the sound of my breathing. Grandpa had said not to leave, no matter what. So I didn't.

"If _anyone _is in here, you need to answer. We're the police, and we'll keep you safe. We'll take care of you so you won't turn into one of _them._" It was tempting, but there were lots of things that weren't answered. Why was the police walking into our house saying they were going to protect me from "them." They searched every bit of the house, but somehow missed me, inside the wall covered by a piece of painted plaster.

I waited until ten minutes after they left to come out. The light made my eyes squint, and the sudden space around me made my head feel light. My feet moved across the room with some difficulty, but somehow I managed to near a window.

And there it was.

The answer to all my questions. So earth shattering, it made my stomach sick.

Three people were shifting down the road.

They weren't sick, hurt, tired like they seemed at first glance.

They were dead.

Skin of various shades of green, blue, purple, brown, gray, were all pealing off the walkers. You could see the flesh pouring out of them and rotting away. When I caught sight of one's face, I forced myself to turn around take a sip of water. It didn't seem real at the time, but somewhere inside, I knew it was.

The sad truth came to me later when I was pacing around the house trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Tears were streaming down my cheeks, cleaning off the dirt I hadn't had the chance to clean off in the shower. I felt like screaming, but I couldn't bring myself to. Somewhere inside of me, there was logic. A beautiful kind of logic that was there to keep me safe. That logic also reminded me, that the reason grandpa hadn't come back yet, was because he was probably dead with the rest of town.

That was when it clicked.

Somehow, Grandpa knew. Grandpa knew that they would try to round up everyone, and he knew that it wouldn't lead to anything good like they intended. Who knows, maybe they had gathered up the people of the village just to kill them before it could happen to them. My Grandfather managed to save my life.

And so I had to plan. I needed to find someone, anyone, that could help me. At sixteen I wasn't going to make it on my own. Even if Grandpa had managed to get me this far, I couldn't hide in the hole forever. If the zombies didn't kill me, it would've been the dark cramped space. I grabbed Grandfather's hunting knife, gripping it in my hand, allowing the leather grip to implant designs into my skin. Twisting the knob of the front door, I stepped a foot outside.

The air smelt a bit sour, but everything else was in place. Birds still flew through the air, singing on their way. Street lights still changed normally, even though there weren't any cars.

I was shaky, moving through the town. The first plan was to make my way to my neighbor Tsubasa's house to see if he had any idea what to do. When my house was far behind me, I gripped the knife harder in my hand.

"_Auuuugghhh"_ The noise came from behind me, and I knew immediately what it was. Letting out a terrified scream, I ran a few feet and turned around.

I stood face to face with one of the worst things I had ever looked at. It was like the rest in terms of appearance, but still held facial features of who the person was before they died. It was haunting how familiar it looked. Tears fell from my eyes and plopped to the ground with a _drip. _The walker stepped toward me, swinging its arms trying to reach me. It bent over a little to match my height, and something inside me forced me to swing at it, slashing it's head. The walker fell to the ground, and didn't move anymore.

I imagined myself, just as lifeless on the ground. Rotting and vile.

And so I ran.

I ran toward where I remembered Tsubasa's house was and sobbed. The longer I ran, the more tired I became. So tired, that eventually, I tripped. I laid flat on the ground, and when I tried to pick myself up, my ankle twinged. My leg forced itself up, but much movement sent needles through my ankle. Working to raise myself upright, I bit my knife in my mouth.

Then there were feet in front of me. Wavering slowly, they made it closer and closer to me. I already knew what it was, but it was hard to look at. I scrambled to get myself up, and even though I could bite through the pain in my ankle, I still couldn't ease it enough to get myself up.

This is it, I thought. I am dead. After all that determination in the darkness of my crawlspace, after the love and care from grandpa, this was it. I wasn't so cut out for a world full of zombies like I thought.

In one last futile effort, I screamed into the sky, "_Somebody help me!" _

As if hearing my cries, somebody saved me. The person gashed the walker through the head with an axe, and it fell to the ground. And there he was. Black hair, red eyes, and a determined look on his face. Staring at me, his look never wavered.

"You aren't bit, are you?" he asked. He didn't look reassuring like I hoped.

"By what? The walkers?" He nodded and started scanning my arms and legs with his eyes, looking for possible bite marks like he had said. "No, I haven't been bitten. Why?" Something in my throat was still recovering from my scream, and made my voice crack a little. He looked at me like I had just told him I believed pigs could fly. With walking dead people though, that didn't seem too far off.

"A bite kills you. Turns you into one of them. You've been alive for a little over a week without knowing that?"

"I've been locked up in my house."

"The sweepers would've found you." He was probably referring to the police and it almost sounded like he didn't believe it.

"I hid in a crawlspace for a week." He was taken aback by this.

"You hid in a tiny cramped area, for a week?"

"That's right." By then I was a bit more relaxed. Even though he was talking to me, he was still paying attention to our surroundings, which made me feel a little safer.

"No wonder you're clueless. I'm Natsume."

"Mikan Sakura," I paused for a second then asked the question that had been on my mind ever since I crawled into my hole. "What's going on?" He unenthusiastically kicked the dead zombie at his feet with a disgusted look on his face.

"Haven't you figured out already? The world is over. This is some sort of deranged apocalypse where dead people come back to life. It's worse than some areas and the first few days were hell. Especially around here. The Sweepers took all the panicked people and threw them all in one spot." That's what Grandpa was protecting me from. The Sweepers.

"Is the entire town in there still?"  
"Well, yeah. You're the only other person I've seen, dead or alive, outside the building."

"What is the government gonna do with them? About this entire situation?" He looked at me with the most despair I've ever seen a person have.

"Don't you get it? There is no government. The people in that town square building are dead! They killed each other. You aren't supposed to be alive. _I'm _not supposed to be alive."

So then Grandpa was dead.

Everyone in town.

"I accidentally let a few out when I went to turn the power on," he mentioned. "The rest of the town is nearly spotless." He didn't know what else to say. The information he'd given me seemed like enough. "I guess I'll get going now," he stated quietly.

There was something about Natsume. Something about how tired his eyes were, even though he was so determined. Or about the way there was dirt smeared all over his face, arms, and legs. Even though he was smart and strong, he looked like he was barely hanging in there. As he was walking away, I realized that if he stayed on his own he'd die. Even hanging out with me would be better off than him just wandering around on his own.

"Natsume, wait!" I called out. He turned. "Do you need a place to stay. I just think it might be easier with two of us." Somewhere in his stoic eyes, I saw relief.

"You might be right." He put his hands in his pockets and followed me as I lead the way home. We didn't speak, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable. In fact, it was much different than the silence I heard in my crawl space. This silence was the trusting kind. The kind of silence that tells you you're in safe hands.


	2. In the Tunnel

Natsume stood outside the house with a hammer in his hand, and a nail between his fingers. I was supposed to be keeping watch while he boarded up the house. Every window, every door needed to be sealed, secure, and walker-proof.

"You can go ahead and nail the front door shut if you want too, there's another way in." I commented. He raised his eyebrows.

"Are you sure? Once this is nailed shut, it'll be hard to undo it."

"Positive, go ahead."

There was something about Natsume that made him intriguing. It might've been the way he hammered the wooden boards into the sides of the house, or maybe how we rolled up his sleeves and focused on task. It was something, though, and it made me forget everything. About the zombies, about Grandfather, about the fact that my entire town was a group of zombie all rounded up like animals.

"Natsume?" He turned to look at me. "How did you make it? How did you avoid the sweeping?" The bright sun made it hard to look at him, but I squinted. He turned back to his hammering and sighed.

"I didn't."

"But then how did you-"

"I've known you for how long and you're already interrogating me?"

"You asked me earlier so I just thought-" He hammered the boards louder. What happened that he didn't want to talk about it? I had figured out a while ago that if my Grandfather was dead, his family probably was too. I didn't have to watch Jii-chan die. Maybe he did. Maybe he watched everyone die. With that in mind, I couldn't blame him for not wanting to answer my questions.

Remembering that I was supposed to be keeping watch, I scanned the area. "You know Natsume, it's pretty quiet for an apocalypse. I don't even see any walkers."

"Like I said, they're all in that main building. I'm sure eventually it'll get worse as ones from outside villages wander in. That's what these boards are for." Since I had met him, Natsume had answers to all my important questions. Did he really have this entire thing figured out?

"You said you turned on the electricity?" I asked changing the subject.

"Mhm, my dad worked for the town, taking care of all the electricity, power lines, things like that. Found the manual a few years back and even turned off all the power in town when I was ten for shits and giggles." I couldn't help but smile. I remembered that clearly, but never knew what rebellious brat decided to do it. Now I knew.

When Natsume finished the first floor windows and doors, he put the hammer in his pocket and dropped the nails in a bush.

"So where's this other entrance to the house?

The only way into the house was through an opening in the basement that led to the sewage tunnels. I lead the way as we neared the pothole. I stood above it, staring at it and basking in how perfect it was. A secret entrance into a house I could be safe in.

"This is it? Your secret entrance into the house?"

"I don't remember it much, but when I was three, the basement flooded and the only way they figured they could drain all the water out, was by sending it directly into the sewage right beneath the house. There's a huge drain that can be lifted up, and has a ladder underneath it in case it needs repairs."

"I would've used that everyday if I was a kid," he commented.

"I did," I answered with a chuckle in my voice. "Every single day, even though I wasn't supposed to." He used the back of his hammer to lift the pothole, then lowered himself down into the tunnel.

"It smells rancid down here." That was funny. It didn't normally smell _this _bad. I mean, sure, sewage smelt awful all the time, but this time it just smelled like...rotting flesh.

I looked behind Natsume, and sure enough, about five monster looking walkers were heading our way. One was faster than the rest, and was quicker than any of the few I had seen before. I wondered for a split second if maybe they had a similar idea as us when they were living. Maybe they wanted to come down here and seek refuge, maybe even from the sweeping. They just hadn't made it. But then it hit me.

"Natsume! Look out!" Quicker than anyone should be able to, he pulled the axe out from his pocket and spun around. The blade ran slick through the zombie's head, cutting it perfectly in half. If I had the time, I might've thrown up from the sight of it, but my mind was on other things. Natsume readied himself for the rest of them, but as they drew closer, they started to form a half circle and his eyes widened. He grabbed my hand and started running.

"Too many of them," he shouted. "Where are we even going exactly?"

"A right then a left. The ladder should be right in the middle of the water."

"Should be?" his voice disbelieving. "I thought you said you were positive about this." The walkers behind us sped up as we did, groaning and growling.

"I haven't been down here in years. How was I supposed to know this would happen?" Natsume pulled me along even faster. When the ladder came in sight, I breathed a sigh of relief, but it was too soon.

"Let me go first," Natsume ordered. He climbed the ladder and shoved the huge drain, but it wouldn't budge.

"Is this screwed down?"

"No, I don't think so. Maybe it just rusted to the floor or something." I hung from the ladder prongs right beneath him. Natsume used his hammer to hit the drain up, and little by little, it was starting to move.

_Grab_.

One of the walkers had attached its hand to my ankle and starting pulling me down.  
I screamed.

I screamed so loud I could hear it echo throughout the entire tunnel.

Gripping the prongs of the ladder, I kicked with all my might, hoping that maybe a few good kicks to the walker's head would do away with it. But it was futile, and by this time, even more zombies were grabbing at me.

"Use my axe!" Natsume yelled. I lifted the axe from out of where it was in Natsume's belt. It was heavy in my one hand, but it was all I had. Using one hand to stay on the ladder, I swung the axe. My hand whipped aroundclumsily, and by sheer luck, it hit a zombie right in the head, making it fall to the ground. The other four still were on my tail, and the axe was getting heavier and heavier. Now eight hands were on my legs, pulling and scrapping. The pain burned in my flesh.

"_Natsume." _I yelled. He looked down at me for a split second and then with one last hit, he thrusted the drain away from the hole, and climbed up. In a second, he was kneeling on the basement floor pulling me up.

"I got you," he said quickly. "Just hurry."

The walkers were quick. They started up the ladder too and were a mere inch behind me when I made it into the house. Natsume slammed the drain down, then put a thin piece of wood and brick over it to hold it down. The walkers underground pounded on it, but the drain wouldn't budge. Still shaking from touch of the walkers, I added another brick just for extra measure. I stared at Natsume in disbelief. His breathing was heavy and quick. He dropped the hammer on the ground and looked around.

"This is your house huh?" I ignored him.

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? I just wanted to know if we were in the ri-"

"No I mean, why did you save me? Ever since I met you, all you've been doing is saving me. You could have easily just left me in those tunnels. I'm just a burden on you. This world as it is now, I'm not cut out for it." I leaned up against the wall next to Natsume and buried my face in my knees. Natsume looked over at me, and frowned.

"No one's cut out for this world. You think I was raised on how to kill zombies? We're in your house aren't we? This is safest place right now. For the both of us. No one can survive in a world like this alone, and we're all that's left of this place." I took a deep breath and stood up.

"I guess we should figure out what we're doing next then."

"We should probably get prepared, because I know this is only beginning." I guided him up the stairs while the two of us were consumed with our thoughts.

"Oh my god, Mikan." I panicked for a second. Had one gotten in the house without me realizing it? Instead, he was looking down at my leg, which was covered in scratches and blood. "I guess that's what we're taking care of next."

*/*

Natsume insisted on taking care of it because, "where you're looking you can't see it very well, and if you don't clean it out good enough, you'll get an infection." He sat quietly using a little alcohol to clean out the bacteria from my cuts.

"Does this hurt at all?" he asked.

"A little, but I'd rather have it hurt than have all the germs from the tunnel in it." I said with a smile. He smirked in return.

"Well here, let's take your mind off of it. Tell me about yourself. If we're gonna be a team, I've got to know about you." I liked this idea. I liked the idea of becoming friends with this boy not only for my own well being and safety, but because I never had anyone I could trust for real before.

"Well my full name is Mikan Sakura. I lived with grandfather because my parents died when I was really little."

"I'm really sorry to hear that," he cut in. "My mom died when I was six and it was hard."

"It's not too bad. It was a little when I was growing up, but I never really felt lonely with Jii-chan. Anyways, I'm sixteen. I'm supposed to be seventeen in a month, but I don't know how well I'll be keeping track of the days with all this," I laughed bitterly. "I used to like sweets, karaoke, and being creative."

"Used to?"  
"Still do. Probably won't have time for any of that though." He didn't say anything. Instead, he continued working on my leg and waited for me to continue. "And I guess I'm just a lot more terrified than I let on. About this entire thing, I mean. What is going to happen to the world, the life we knew? Eventually we're gonna run out of supplies because at this rate, society is never going to be able to pick itself up."

"Not to mention the flesh hungry walking dead people all over the place," Natsume added.

"That too. I'm just worried, that's all." Natsume looked up and shrugged. He had a sad look in his eye, but still focused on putting bandages on my leg.

"Remember that time a few years ago when the entire village went into a panic because of that rabid dog?" I nodded. "Those dead people out there aren't much more than rabid dogs. Half dead beings that want to bite you. These walkers are just a bit more disgusting, that's all. I know it's hard to understand, but we'll have to adjust like humanity always has."

"I guess you're right."

"And even though things are nasty right now, doesn't mean that this is it forever." His red eyes glistened. He was wearing a small smile on his face.

"You're really smart, Natsume."

"Or so I've been told."

He finished cleaning up my leg, and we decided that we'd hold off the planning and figuring-out-what-to-do until tomorrow. When Natsume flicked the switch in the living room, and all the lights turned on, something in me sighed. He actually managed to turn on the power again. As much as I wanted to be happy, I couldn't help but feel skeptical. Everything was going too perfect, and I had a feeling it wasn't going to for long.


End file.
